Tottenham concede two late Inter goals to lose dramatic Champions League opener at the death

Inter Milan 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur: Mauro Icardi’s brilliant volley hauled the hosts level before Matias Vecino’s injury-time header sealed a memorable late comeback

Just because something keeps on happening does not make it any easier to take. Tottenham lost their third straight game 2-1 here, making this the worst run of Mauricio Pochettino’s tenure. And this defeat, a spectacular five-minute meltdown, must be the most painful of the lot. You do not often see players lying devastated in defeat like this so early in the season.

What makes it hurt so much is that Spurs were four minutes away from what would have been a famous win here. They were 1-0 up, passing the ball amongst themselves, counting down the seconds until the completion of their dream Champions League start, their perfect reaction to their dip in form, their answer to Pochettino’s challenges to them. It felt as if Spurs’ season was finally about to start. They had weathered the early storm, silence San Siro, and taken the lead through Christian Eriksen. That was about to be that.

But then Mauro Icardi slammed in a 20-yard volley that no-one saw coming. All the air was knocked out of Spurs and their knees buckled beneath them. Inter went into overdrive and the reversal of energy, on the pitch and in the stands, made this look like we were watching the first-half again on double-speed, and unlike anything from the sedate last half hour.

Mauro Icardi volleys in Inter's equaliser (AFP/Getty Images)

Inter were throwing everything at Tottenham and four added minutes looked like more than they would need. Sure enough, Stefan de Vrij won the first header and Matias Vecino the second, nodding the ball from six yards out past a helpless Michel Vorm. Inter subs and coaches charged onto the pitch, the roof of the stadium was nearly lifted off. Losing 2-1 to Liverpool on Saturday, or Watford two weeks before that, had nothing on this.

This result already changes the complexion of Group B, given Spurs host Barcelona at Wembley next time out. But they have more immediate questions than which European competition – if any – they will playing in in their new stadium in February 2019. Like the fact that they have lost three straight for the first time since Tim Sherwood was manning the ship, two of those they lost having been 1-0 ahead.

This game did little to answer questions about Spurs’ defence, which used to be the best in England but now gives the ball and chances away like they did in the bad old days. Pochettino changed three of his back four from Saturday but they outcome was not very different. Nor will this game do much to rebut the suggestion that Harry Kane is unrecognisable from his form one year ago. He had one chance here, late in the second half, and badly overran the ball. Ultimately this result, and the way it happened, will not change the prevailing sense around Spurs – what Pochettino shrugs off as the ‘perception’ – that they are still not themselves right now. Their trip to Brighton on Saturday looms large.

Harry Kane rounds the goalkeeper but cannot finish (AP)

Because after those Liverpool and Watford defeats, Tottenham needed a simple, gentle task, an opponent they could put away just to remind themselves of what they can do. Instead they dropped right into a cauldron. There was a huge crowd of Inter fans here, every one of them desperate to make the most of their first Champions League back for nearly seven years. They unfurled a huge banner before kick-off, announcing “We are back”. And in case in the Spurs players didn’t see it, they belted out the final words of the Champions League anthem just to make themselves clear.

Inter began as if their fans and the anthem had awoken something inside them. As if they had to prove their right to be here all over again. They pressed Spurs high up the pitch, Mauro Icardi leading the charge, snapping at the heels of the centre-backs. Marcelo Brozovic and Radja Nainggolan stormed around the midfield, flattening every opponent in sight.

If Tottenham wanted anything here, they had to keep the ball better than they did at against Liverpool’s press on Saturday. Pochettino had said that Spurs were “scared to play from the back” that day, Kane that they were “sloppy” in possession. So Pochettino made five changes, including three of the back four, hoping that these players might be able to build up from the back better than his Saturday team could.

Christian Eriksen's shot beats goalkeeper Samir Handanovic (Reuters)

It was not easy going. For the first 35 minutes Spurs could not get a foothold in the game. Everything they tried was thrown straight back at them. Not once did they keep the ball for four or five passes, just to slow the game down, to get it back on their terms. It felt like a repeat of the Liverpool game, even if the route the game took to get to that 2-1 scoreline was very different.

But by the end of the first half Inter were starting to tire, to lose discipline, to give away free-kicks that Spurs could exploit. Eriksen’s delivery just let him down, but his growing influence was ominous. When he clipped a clever pass through to Kane, it was Spurs’ best moment of the first half, even if Kane overran the ball.

When the half-time whistle went, Inter might have feared they had missed their moment, that they had burned themselves out in 40 minutes. When the second half started there were spaces that did not exist back in that busy opening. And in a game like this, who better to lurk in those spaces than Christian Eriksen?

Mauro Icardi celebrates his equalising volley (Reuters)

Eight minutes of the second half had been played when Eriksen popped up 20 yards from goal, finally fee from Brozovic, and got off a shot. Samir Handanovic dived well to save it but Eriksen, sharper and smarter than the players around him, got to the rebound first. His second effort deflected off Miranda, up and over the despairing stumble of Handanovic. With that lucky loop, the game changed, Tottenham started to keep the ball, and Eriksen was even more influential than ever.

But before the international break Spurs had taken the lead against Watford with a fortunate deflection only to throw it away in the second half. They did the same here, squandering their good luck, even if they left it much later to do so.

They were four minutes away from what would have been a famous and crucial victory and Inter were creating little, just flinging balls into the box. But sometimes you only need only moment of explosive brilliance to transform a game. Kwadwo Asamoah broke down the left, cut his hard cross back to Icardi, 20 yards from goal. He met it with the most perfectly struck volley, whistling past Michel Vorm and into the bottom corner.

Inter were awake, all of a sudden, throwing themselves at Spurs, the ball pinging around the box as they hunted a winner. Pochettino took Kane off for Danny Rose but even then the Spurs defence could not hold them off. The ball was flung in one more time, Stefan de Vrij won the first header, and Matias Vecino leaped up six yards out, no defenders near him, to thump the ball past Vorm and in. The third 2-1 defeat in a row, but this one the worst of the lot.